Laws of Robotics
by Backward Compatible
Summary: Earth is slowly recovering from the Combine occupation but there's already another war going on behind the scenes – a war that many people refuse to even acknowledge exists because they want no part in it.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: The basic idea for this story came to me roughly six months ago when I was taking a walk but I have absolutely no idea why I've waited this long before actually starting putting it to words. Originally I wanted to create a story that could go on for a long time, but my mind quickly rushed ahead and came up with an ending of sorts. That disappointed me at first, but then I realized that that ending was by no means necessarily the end of the entire story, and so the story expanded into a series. This is the first part in that series and I have a reasonably good idea of what the other ones are going to be about as well.**** Hopefully at least some of you are going to stick with this tale till the very end.**

**Now, if you are prepared, let us take our first step on this long journey together, shall we?**

* * *

Everything was completely black. Chell wasn't sure if her eyes were open or closed so she tried opening them, but there was no change. Unsure of where she was and how she'd ended up here, the young woman attempted to move a little but to her dismay she found that she couldn't really feel her body.

Terrified, the girl tried to figure out whether she was conscious, dreaming, or dead. For some reason she couldn't concentrate very well on anything, so after a couple of futile attempts she decided to simply clear her mind and calm down. Unable to move her body and with very little but unanswered question on her mind, Chell spent some time doing absolutely nothing and surprisingly that made her feel a bit better.

Time seemed to mean very little where she was, but after what could have very well been either just a couple of minutes or on the other hand perhaps even several years, she heard something. It was very faint at first, almost like a distant echo, but slowly the sound got louder and started to seem more present. It was a simple, yet truly beautiful melody which Chell was quite certain she'd never heard before. As the melody became stronger, the girl found herself more and more drawn to it and finally it felt like the sound was in the same "space" as her.

Chell opened her eyes.

The sun was shining brightly right into her eyes and she was forced to squint. Even though her eyes were still adjusting to the light, Chell could make out that there was a young woman in front of her sitting on some rocks with her left side facing her. The sun was shining from almost directly behind the girl and made it hard to make out more than her outline, but she seemed to be gazing somewhere far into the horizon without a care in the world and was humming the song that had brought Chell back to her senses.

While still lying on the ground, Chell carefully looked around herself. They seemed to be on top of some sort of cliff. The ground was very dry and there wasn't any vegetation in sight, only rocks. Chell herself was wearing a very ordinary looking pair of blue pants and a white tank top but she didn't seem to be carrying any other belongings besides her clothes as her pockets were empty.

As the girl tried to get up in a sitting position without drawing attention to herself, she must have made a sound because the young woman in front of her suddenly stopped her humming and turned her head in Chell's direction. Chell felt tightness in her chest because she wasn't sure who this other person was, but the feeling quickly went away when the other woman got up and skipped towards her cheerfully.

"You're finally awake! I was getting worried because it's been two days already and the sun is going down, but I had faith in you," the girl said her voice full of joy and bent down in front of Chell so that her face was practically touching hers. The smile on the girl's face was the most joyful any person could possibly have and Chell found it impossible to question the childlike sincerity she was sensing from her.

What confused Chell about this very animated girl, however, was her face which was completely gray and looked like it was made out of some sort of not very shiny metal that somehow moved seemingly effortlessly as she talked and formed expressions. The quite young looking girl's voice sounded completely natural and everything about her behavior and physical appearance, apart from her metallic skin and her clearly synthetic silvery shoulder-length hair, was very human but she clearly wasn't one.

Chell wasn't sure what kind of expression she had on her face but the girl didn't seem to pay any attention to that and continued: "I saw you with my binoculars. You looked so cool running underneath that thing with a portal gun in one hand and a gun in the other. It was amazing! When the whole thing suddenly exploded before you could make it to safety and I saw the blast wave throw you off, I thought you might've died or at least gotten seriously injured. But look at you! You didn't even get any serious burns! I'm so glad."

The metallic woman who was clad all in beige smiled warmly but Chell wasn't quite sure whether to smile in return or not, so she tried getting back up on her feet instead. The girl offered to assist her but she managed it on her own, although just barely. Once back on her feet, Chell quickly inspected her own body to see if she was indeed without any serious injury. The only external thing she could find were some minor burns on her backside but from what she could tell they had already started healing. She was feeling a bit dizzy, however, and the android seemed to notice that for she took a canteen from her belt and offered it to the human. "Here, you should drink some water," she said and looked at Chell encouragingly.

Chell hesitated for a second but then accepted the bottle and took a small sip. It was indeed water. Even though the water wasn't cold, it eased the dryness in Chell's mouth she hadn't even noticed until now and she started gulping down the bottle's content without reservations. Once the canteen was about half empty, she felt she'd had enough at least for the time being and closed the cap. She said "Thank you" to the friendly artificial girl and realized it was the first thing she'd said to her.

"You're welcome," the girl responded and smiled kindly. Chell tried to offer the bottle back to her but the girl refused.

"Keep it. I have no use for it. In case you couldn't tell from just looking at my face, I'm not one of those O-models. I picked that canteen from a dead combatant while I was carrying you away from the battlefield so no one will be missing it."

Chell didn't really understand what the girl was talking about, but she decided to just nod and attached the canteen to her belt using the clip on its side. She then looked at the android standing in front of her and opened her mouth to say something but her head was full of so many questions she wasn't sure what to say. For a short while she just stood there with her mouth half open, but finally she managed to get some words out: "Um… I'm a little confused."

"Oh," responded the girl and tilted her head to the side.

"I–," Chell began, "I can't really remember what happened."

"What can you remember?" the android girl inquired, curious.

"Well, I remember my name and…"

"Uh-huh," the girl replied and waited for Chell to continue.

Chell tried to think but then her eyes widened and she looked straight into the metallic girl's azure eyes in panic.

What were her parents' names? What did they look like? Who were her friends? What school had she gone to? What did she do for a living? Where did she live? No matter how hard she tried to think, Chell was drawing a complete blank.

"Nothing else?" the girl asked calmly and the only thing Chell managed to do in response was slowly shake her head. The girl went quiet for a moment and seemed to be deep in thought. Chell didn't want to interrupt her and just waited anxiously for her to say something.

Finally the android lifted her head back up and said, "You probably hit your head when you fell on that building. I inspected your injuries when I got to you, but I didn't notice any signs of head trauma. I know very little about human physiology but let's hope that your memory loss is only temporary." She tried to comfort Chell by smiling encouragingly, but it did little to elevate her mood, although Chell did appreciate the effort nonetheless.

"Could you tell me what happened?" Chell asked.

The girl looked behind her and frowned. "Yes, but I'll have to try to keep it brief. Like I said, the sun is already going down and I should actually already be on my way somewhere. Don't take this the wrong way; it's an honor and a pleasure for me to help you, but I have certain commitments and I've been carrying you for over two days now."

"Yes, I understand," Chell said, even though she didn't. Based on everything the android had said so far, they didn't seem to know each other and that made the girl wonder why this artificial woman felt it was an honor for her to be helping her.

"How should I begin…" the girl began and pressed her index finger against her upper lip while looking up at the sky in thought. "OK, I know now! Hihi," she then said in a lively manner and started telling Chell about what had happened sounding surprisingly enthusiastic and like she was having fun. "There was a really big operation about 120 miles from here two days ago around noon. It all took place in the ruins of a small town left uninhabited after the occupation."

"An operation?" Chell interjected.

"A large-scale battle," the girl explained. "At least a couple hundred people on both sides. It was truly a sight to see. Both parties were giving it their all. I wasn't part of either group but I did give your people some assistance from the shadows whenever I could."

"If you weren't there to fight, then why were you there? And what was the conflict about in the first place?"

"Haha, you're asking so many questions you must have lost your memory. Of course I believed you when you said you have amnesia, but at the back of my head I kept wondering if you were pulling a weird prank on me because it just sounds so ironic that you'd lose you memory again. Hahaha." The android girl laughed cheerfully, but Chell didn't find anything funny about her memory loss. She didn't think any less of the girl who'd apparently helped her because of that, though. She seemed to just be acting like herself.

"Wait," Chell said, having realized what the android had just said. "What do you mean I've lost my memory **again**?"

"Just that it's common knowledge that you'd already lost all your memories about your past several years ago. That's why I thought you might've been joking, because what are the odds of that happening twice to the same person, right? But to answer your questions, I was there on a secret assignment that I can't really tell anyone anything about, not even you. _Soorryy_. Hihi. It's all really hush hush. As for why the conflict took place… That would take me way too long to explain to you considering you don't remember anything about the two sides involved. All that matters is that your people won because of you and I feel privileged to have been able to see you in action." When she mentioned Chell, the metallic girl started beaming. Chell had no doubts about the fact that she seemed to value her very highly, although she still couldn't understand why.

"If there were hundreds of people involved like you said, what did I do that had such a large impact on the outcome? I'm just one person after all."

"It's weird listening to you talk about yourself when you don't know who you are but I do. Anyway, to keep things brief, this is what happened in a nutshell. Your side was better prepared because you were the attacking party, and at first it seemed you were going to emerge the victor. But then something no one could have expected happened. These huge concealed doors on the ground opened and an enormous four-legged walking tank emerged from underneath the town. It must've been close to sixty feet tall! Taller than any of the buildings in that town. Every part of it was covered by a shiny black plating that didn't resemble any material I've ever seen before. Everything about the technology seemed way too advanced to be something developed here on Earth, so it had to be a machine left behind by the Combine, although I've never heard of such a thing being used during the occupation."

There were already at least a dozen questions buzzing in Chell's head at this point. Questions like, what's this talk about an occupation and who are the Combine, but she decided to not interrupt the story her synthetic ally was trying to tell her because of every small detail she couldn't understand. The android had said she was in a hurry and Chell tried to respect that even though she was feeling very perplexed by all the things she was hearing.

"Your people had rockets and other explosives, but none of them seemed to leave even a dent on that intriguing armor. Some people thought the joints in its legs might be its weak spot but they were wrong and they turned out to be as well reinforced as the rest of that magnificent beast."

"You seem to admire the enemy's tank," Chell noted.

"Just because the tank might've been in the wrong hands, that doesn't mean the tech itself doesn't deserve to be praised and admired. But can I go on now? I'm getting to the good part."

"Yes, of course. Sorry that I keep interrupting you," Chell replied a bit embarrassed that she couldn't stay content with just listening.

"Oh, don't worry about it," the girl said and gave Chell a friendly smile that was so wide the human could see most of her perfectly white artificial teeth shining in the rays coming from the slowly setting sun. Seeing her like that made Chell wonder was she really in such big of a hurry as she'd said, or if she'd forgotten all about that because she was having so much fun telling Chell about the battle.

"That thing had some kind of powerful beam weapon that appeared to be its only weapon and it quickly wreaked havoc in your ranks with it. Luckily the beam had a reasonably long recharge time, but still once it became apparent that none of the weapons at your disposal could cause damage to the thing it became quite obvious that your side was going to lose." The azure-eyed android paused for a moment and allowed Chell time to picture the seemingly hopeless scene in her mind's eye.

"But then it happened!" the girl then burst out. "I don't know how you did it, but apparently you somehow got inside that thing and either placed some explosives or caused some kind of irreversible critical overload. I didn't see you go in or out but I happened to spot you when you were running underneath the tank's body on a small catwalk. You were being pursued but took care of your pursuers with a couple of well placed shots and didn't even slow down. I've never seen any human move so fluently and with such precision as you. But then the walker exploded before you could make it off the catwalk…" The android fell silent for a moment, apparently somewhat saddened by recalling the moment she saw Chell being thrown by the blast, but it didn't take her long to recover.

"Like I told you earlier, I saw you fall on the roof of a nearby building. But that's when something I did not expect happened."

"And what was that?"

"Someone managed to form a direct beam connection with one of the sensors on my skin. We did the handshake and this unknown person sent me a short heavily encrypted burst of data before they broke the connection. I inspected the direction the beam came from, but I couldn't spot anyone."

"What was this data you received?"

"When decrypted, it was a short message that told me to go to you and take you to safety."

"Any idea who sent the message?"

"No, but I took it very seriously and made my way to where you'd fallen as fast as I could. When I got there, there was no one else but you. Neither the weapon you were carrying or your portal gun were there, so they must've been thrown either on a different building or on the street below. The protective vest you were wearing was badly burned so I took it off carefully. I was so relieved to see the vest and your clothes had protected you from being more seriously burned by the flames. I then picked you up and carefully made my way away from the battle avoiding being seen by either side."

Chell wondered why the android had avoided being seen by the people who were on her side as well, but decided to not inquire further into the matter figuring it probably had something to do with either the android's own mission or her not being officially on Chell's side, possibly both.

"And I think that's about it!" the silver-haired girl concluded and smiled happily, content that she'd finally been able to answer Chell's question about what had transpired.

The girl seemed to have enjoyed telling about the battle, but it had felt weird for Chell to listen to this cheerful girl talk about it because she really seemed to know what she was talking about. She'd said she wasn't there to participate in the fighting so Chell couldn't help but wonder what reason this most joyous and vivid girl imaginable could possibly have had to be at such a place when a battle like that was going on. The young woman knew she couldn't ask her metal-skinned savior anything about that, but there was something else that kept bothering her.

"Sorry to ask, but what's a portal gun?" Chell couldn't help but inquire somewhat shyly.

The android girl, who'd been enjoying a small break from all the talking and had been looking up at the blue sky while playing with her hair, looked at Chell in surprise and said, "I'm sorry. Could you repeat that?"

"Oh, did you miss what I said?" Chell said and grinned, assuming the girl had drifted off to her own little fantasy land in her head for a moment.

"No, I heard what you said. I just wasn't looking at your face when you said it, that's all."

Chell didn't understand the android's response at all. "…Sorry, but I don't follow."

"I'd just like to have a visual record of you asking what's a portal gun. Could you _pleaaaase_ do that for me?"

"Well… OK, I guess," Chell said, not quite sure what this was all about, but she didn't want to turn down the sweet android who was asking her so nicely. "What's a portal gun?" she then repeated her question.

"Thank you! That was priceless. You'll understand i– **when** you get your memory back. I promise I won't put this on the web or anything, so don't worry. This was just for me. Honest!"

"OK, OK, I'm not doubting your word," Chell replied trying to reassure the girl. Once again she wasn't quite sure what the android was talking about but apparently she could share the things she'd seen and heard with others if she wanted – or something like that. Chell was still trying to get used to the fact that the person she was talking to wasn't a human but a machine. She hadn't had time to even think about what a synthetic being like that could and could not do.

"But yeah, to answer your question about the portal device… Sorry, but I don't think it's actually that important **right now**, and I'm not sure you'd be able to fully grasp what it is just by listening to me tell you about it. It really is something that's much easier to understand by experiencing it in practice. I'm sure you'll learn all about it very soon, unless your memory comes back before that, which would be even better." The girl gave Chell a look that seemed to inquire if her answer had been satisfactory. Chell got the impression from it that if she really wanted to know about the portal gun now the android was willing to give her the explanation she desired.

Chell decided to trust her companion's judgement on her not needing to know about the portal gun right now, so she answered, "I was just curious, that's all. If it's not something I should definitely know about, then let's just drop the subject. I understand you're in a hurry and I appreciate everything you've done for me, so thank you for taking the time to answer at least some of my questions."

"It's no problem at all. I'm not saying the things I need to go do aren't important, but you're still much more important than them even if I get in trouble for failing to complete my tasks." The girl gave Chell a warm smile to convince her that she meant what she said and the gesture seemed completely sincere to the young woman.

"You could get in trouble?" Chell had to ask.

"A little," the android girl replied, "but don't worry, helping you was fun and worth any penalty. If I hurry, nothing's even going to happen so don't waste even a single thought on that." The girl glanced quickly at the sun and continued, "Shoot! Time goes by so fast. I hate running in the dark. I should definitely start wrapping this up so that I can get going."

"Sorry that I've kept you so long."

"Stop apologizing. You have no need to. Anyway, if you look in this direction," the girl guided Chell's gaze to Chell's right with her hand, "that's where you should head once we part. This barren canyon next to us was created by the Combine during their occupation of Earth for an unknown reason, but you only need to walk for about a mile from the canyon before everything starts looking normal again. This whole area used to be green hills, you know. One can only wonder why those aliens wanted to desecrate a beautiful landscape like that and dig away such a huge amount of ground. Nothing even grows here or in the immediate vicinity after all these years, so clearly they also did something else than just dig here. People have studied this place but no one has been able to figure out what's wrong with the soil or why the Combine did this."

As the silver-haired girl spoke, Chell noticed that her right hand was clenched into a tight fist and the look on her face as she looked at the vast rocky landscape seemed very serious, but perhaps a little sad as well. This was the first time Chell had seen anything even remotely like this on the normally so joyful girl's face.

"Is everything alright?" Chell asked carefully.

"Oh, yeah I'm fine," the girl replied and realized she'd become agitated. She released her fist and slowly seemed to ease back to being her normal self again. "Thinking about bad stuff can get to me sometimes, but I'm alright now." The girl laughed cheerfully and gave Chell the same joyful smile she was already so used to seeing by this point.

_"Talk about a quick recovery,"_ Chell thought. "Good. I just got a little worried."

"Thanks for caring about me, but I'm totally fine now. My mind just wandered to dark places for a moment, that's all. Anyway, even though the place you're going to shouldn't be very far from here, you should definitely have a weapon. Just in case." After saying that the girl reached behind her back and pulled out a pistol.

Seeing the weapon made Chell feel slightly uneasy because up to this point she hadn't known that her companion was armed. The feeling didn't last for very long, however, for Chell believed that if the android wasn't actually friendly, she would have shown that already.

"Here," the girl said and offered the gun to Chell. Reluctantly she took the pistol and examined it with curiosity. It was a bit larger than she would have expected a pistol to be and the design and materials seemed kind of futuristic to her. The gun's surface was very smooth and polished and all of the corners were rounded so that there weren't any sharp edges anywhere. It was impossible to say from the looks alone whether the gun was made of some kind of alloy, a ceramic material, or something entirely different. Most of the pistol's surface was white with some metallic accents here and there to emphasize some of its lines and make it visually even more appealing. The weapon was pretty to look at, but the precision of every detail about how it was made left no doubt that is was also most certainly deadly in the right hands.

"It's slightly better than the average models," the android explained. "It only packs a decent amount of punch, but the recoil is pretty low and it's very accurate even without implants – with good ones it's reliable even at long range. It's not ID locked, so anyone can use it." The girl moved next to Chell and looked at the weapon she was holding in front of her. "Hmm… Your implants must be turned off because this indicator isn't lighting up," she said and pointed to a small circular spot that was apparently a small lamp.

"Implants?"

"Yes. It's common nowadays for some people to have tiny implants in their body that are connected to their body's neural network. They can enhance various aspects such as some of the senses and can also be used to communicate with certain equipment such as high-tech weapons like this one for example. There should be implants in both of your hands that allow you to form a connection with this pistol. This allows you to find out some rudimentary things like how much ammo you have left, but more importantly it enables you to become _one_ with the gun and perform much, much better with it thanks to that."

"You mean there are some kind of devices inside my body?" Chell asked and hastily took a close look at her hands. "I don't see any scars or anything like that," she then said after she couldn't find anything unusual.

"Modern medicine can heal most surgical scars, so I doubt there are any marks left on your body."

"Are you sure I have these implants? Couldn't it just be that I just don't have any?"

"I'm certain that someone like you has implants. I even bet they are some of the highest grade available," the android stated cheerfully and sounded like she was happy for Chell. The young woman herself on the other hand wasn't quite sure what to think of the fact that there might be small surgically implanted devices all over her body.

"Why are my implants off?"

"That probably happened because you lost consciousness."

"Is it a problem if they're turned off?"

"No, but having them on gives you a great advantage and there aren't any downsides that I'm aware of."

"Well how do I turn them on then?"

"I'm not a human so I wouldn't really know, but I think you just probably have to look within yourself and sense their presence. Then just tell them to activate. Sorry, but that's the best advice I can give you."

"Sense their presence?" Chell asked in surprise. "Fine. I'll try that."

The young woman closed her eyes and tried to search for some kind of sign of a foreign presence but she couldn't sense anything. Thinking that perhaps she hadn't tried hard enough, Chell tried to relax and block out the outside world concentrating solely on herself. However, no matter how hard she tried, there just didn't seem to be anything to discover. Slowly she opened her eyes and shook her head to the android.

"Well I guess it can't be helped then. Hopefully your memory returns soon, but even if it doesn't, I'm sure there are people who are more than willing to show you how to use your implants again," the girl said. "Anyway, do you think you at least remember how to shoot a gun?" she continued and looked slightly concerned.

"I-I'm not sure," Chell replied uncertainly.

"Only one way to find out then," the android said and walked over to a big rock about thirty feet away from Chell and placed a smaller rock on top of it. "Think you can hit that rock from where you are?" she asked and looked kind of hopeful. "Remember to turn off the safety first. It's that small lever on the side."

The metallic girl moved away from the two rocks and Chell took aim. Her hand was swaying a bit but somehow she felt comfortable holding a gun like this. She wasn't doubting the sincerity of the things the android had told her, but she still simply didn't _feel_ like the person the azure-eyed girl had told her about with such admiration.

Slowly Chell breathed out and gently squeezed the trigger. A shot rang out and the smaller rock was thrown off the larger one with great force.

The android started jumping up and down and clapping her hands out of joy. "Yes! I knew you could do it! Now there's no need for me to be worried. Yay!" She clasped her hands behind her back and started twisting her upper body from side to side, smiling in content.

_"If everyone was as happy as she is, the world would be such a wonderful place,"_ Chell thought and smiled back at the android, not being able to contain her own joy of apparently having a natural talent in marksmanship. Once they had both settled down a little, Chell asked, "Do you have another weapon for yourself? You're not giving me your only gun, are you?"

"I left my sniper rifle behind when I carried you away from the battle, but I typically procure most of my equipment on-site anyway, so it's not like I left anything vital behind. It's doubtful I'll run into any trouble on my way to where I'm headed so don't worry about me. The place you should head to isn't very far but I'd feel a lot safer if you weren't moving around empty handed. The gun isn't mine anyway, so there's no need to even thank me for it."

Chell had some difficulty picturing the lively silver-haired girl with a sniper rifle in her hand so she simply stopped trying.

"Fine, I'll take the gun but what's this place I should go to? If it's not far from here, why didn't you just take me there yourself while I was unconscious?"

"It's a place where you'll be safe, but I've never been there myself so I think it would be rude of me to come uninvited, that's all."

"OK, I understand. Thanks for everything you've done for me. I can't believe you carried me on your back for 120 miles in just two days. Did you even take time to rest?"

"I only slept a couple of hours on both nights, but I'm used to that. I'll get a good night's sleep when I get home."

"Is that where you're headed?"

"No, but hopefully that'll be my next stop after this. But I need to go now. Take care." The android smiled warmly and gave Chell a hug. The human didn't resist the gesture and smiled in return.

"You too," she replied simply.

The silver-haired girl started walking toward the canyon. When she was near the edge, something very simple finally occurred to Chell. "Hey! What's your name?" she yelled.

The android turned around and ran back to her. "Oh, right! I'm Tori," she said with a big grin and stuck out her hand. "It was a pleasure to meet the legendary Chell."

Chell shook the android's hand and replied, "Likewise. I'm glad to have met you Tori." She had expected the android's hand to feel cold and rigid because she'd thought the girl's skin was made out of metal, but on the contrary, her skin was very soft and warm – definitely not made of metal.

Without saying anything further, the android girl ran to the canyon's edge, turned around and said, "I hope we meet again someday." Then she suddenly jumped off.

"Hey!" Chell yelled and ran to the spot where Tori had stood just moments before. When she looked down she could see the android girl landing at the bottom of the drop that must've been at least two hundred feet if not more. To the young woman's amazement the android managed to stay on her feet and seemed totally unharmed.

The girl looked up and shouted back to Chell, "Oh, don't worry. I don't need long fall boots like the ones you have. I've got the same technology built into my legs, although I don't have a visible spring part like your boots." Tori then yelled goodbye to Chell and started running toward the other side of the huge man-made gorge.

The human yelled goodbye in return and then turned around to face the direction Tori had instructed her to head to. She'd been wondering why she was wearing such a peculiar looking pair of glossy white boots but thought that there was no point asking Tori about them. _"Long fall boots, huh? So I can survive falls like that as long as I'm wearing these boots. That's certainly good to know."_

It then occurred to her that she had forgotten to ask what kind of place she was supposed to be looking for and who she was supposed to meet there, but since Tori hadn't mentioned it it was probably something that was incredibly obvious and impossible to miss. It was too late to ask about it now so all the young woman could do was hope that was indeed the case.

Chell made sure she'd turned the gun's safety back on and tucked the pistol into the back of her pants. _"The legendary Chell…"_ she replayed what Tori had said in her mind as she started walking away from the canyon with brisk steps. _"If that's true, I wonder what on earth I did to become legendary. I hope my memory comes back soon, because I have no idea what's going on."_

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**A/N: This chapter came together in surprisingly few writing sessions. A lot of that probably has to do with the fact that I've know exactly what this chapter was going to be about since last spring. I also tend to write dialogue a bit faster than descriptions and narration, so that helped as well. That being said, I'm not used to writing this much dialogue, so that did present a bit of a challenge and I'm still kind of figuring out how I exactly want to approach writing dialogue. This is also my first time trying to put an original character down on paper so hopefully Tori comes across the way I intended.**

**For those of you who don't know, I'm writing this story concurrently with Competitive Testing Initiative, a story that's very different from this one but possibly worth checking out if you found yourself enjoying this chapter. I've already decided that the next thing I publish is going to be the second chapter for this story, but after that I'm going to start alternating between the two. I'll try to get at least some of the next chapter written during Christmas break and get it out some time in January, but please don't be too disappointed if it takes me longer than that. I don't release stuff that I'm not personally happy with, so everything takes as long as it takes. I'll try my best not to make you wait too long, though.**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: This always seems to happen to me so I don't know why I'm even surprised at this point, but the final word count for this chapter really crept up on me. I was honestly expecting this to be my shortest chapter yet – just a simple chapter that connects the two more prominent chapters before and after it together. The content didn't change all that much during the writing from what I had originally planned, but since I'm not willing to cut corners and usually try to allow things to develop at a natural pace, many of the various small things in this chapter kind of expanded a little and accumulated as time went on, ultimately resulting in the text you now have before you.**

**Before I let you get on with the story, I just wanted to thank the reviewers for the first chapter for mentioning you liked the chapter's opening. I'm always looking for new things to try out and knowing what worked and didn't work in the past is a great help in that regard.**

**Alright, I'll meet you at the end of the chapter. Hope you enjoy it!**

* * *

Like Tori had said, Chell didn't need to walk for very long before the barren scenery was replaced by green grass and soon after some trees started to appear as well. Before she had even noticed how it'd happened, the young woman found herself walking in the middle of an entire forest.

There had still been plenty of light when the two had parted ways, but now the sun was getting really close to the horizon and Chell picked up her pace, not wanting to be in these woods when it became dark. She hadn't come across a natural trail she could follow but fortunately the ground was easy to traverse and the girl believed she was making good time. Her only complaint was that she was starving after not having eaten anything in over two days, and it didn't help things one bit that she had already drank almost all of the water that was left in her canteen.

As Chell kept walking through the forest which wasn't showing any signs of ending anytime soon, her mind started to wander. First she went through her conversation with the friendly android Tori, but eventually she drifted on to other things and wondered what her life had exactly been like up to this point. Above all else she wished she'd meet someone who'd been close to her and could help her make sense of all this – someone who'd hold her in a warm, friendly embrace, stroke her hair and tell her everything was going to be alright, tell her she was going to get her old life back and that soon all of this would be just another memory among countless others.

Chell's thoughts were suddenly interrupted when she realized she'd walked out into a large open area. She looked to her left and right and found to her surprise that the trees had stopped in a perfectly straight line. However, what lay in front of her was even more astonishing: she was standing in a wheat field that extended as far as the eye could see.

"What the heck?" Chell said out loud. _"How does something like this even exist?"_

The sun was now already partially below the horizon by this point, painting the sky all kinds of beautiful shades of orange and red, so Chell decided to just keep walking although she was starting to lose hope of actually reaching any kind of civilization before it would be pitch black. It seemed obvious this field was tended by someone but the young woman had absolutely no idea how enormous the field actually was and how long she'd have to walk before she'd come across a farm or a village of some sort.

As the ponytailed brunette made her way across the seemingly endless sea of wheat, she grew more and more anxious as the light continued to diminish with each step she took as the sun slowly but surely disappeared behind the horizon. Then just as the last of the red glow above the skyline disappeared and the girl was engulfed in darkness, she heard a crackle behind her. Chell's heart jumped into her throat and she froze in place, paralyzed with fear.

Had she just imagined it? No, Chell was certain she'd heard the sound. Afraid to turn around, the girl strained her hearing, attempting to hear anything further, but all she could make out were some birds singing in the forest, the sound of grasshoppers chirping somewhere in the distance, the gentle wind that was blowing through the field making the wheat sway a little… and the sound of her own heart racing in her chest.

Chell realized she was sweating, but it wasn't just because of the still quite warm mid- or late summer air. The fact that there hadn't been another sound was slightly reassuring but it didn't change that the girl had definitely heard something. The young woman gathered all of her courage, calmed herself down and assumed a visibly more relaxed stance. If there was someone – or something – behind her, she wanted to give them the impression the silence had put her mind at ease.

After exhaling deeply, Chell took a step forward. Then, in a flash, she turned a full hundred and eighty degrees holding out her gun with its safety turned off. What the girl saw made her breath catch in her throat.

In front of her stood a woman with short black hair, wearing what appeared to be a completely black sneaking suit of some sort that covered her all the way up to her chin. Although it was hard to tell in the dark, the woman seemed to have a devilish grin on her face which made Chell feel extremely uneasy.

For a while the two of them just stood there without either of them saying a word. The cold, smug expression on the other woman's face was giving Chell the chills and she couldn't muster the courage to say anything so she remained silent, just staring at the woman with her pistol aimed at her chest. The woman in black didn't seem the least bit threatened by the weapon pointed at her, which scared the hell out of Chell.

_"Who is this woman?"_ Chell wondered, but did not have the nerve to voice her question.

Perhaps amused by the nervous look in the young woman's eyes, the grin on the short-haired woman's face widened slowly. She then took a single step to the side so that she was no longer standing directly in front of the gun pointed at her. This puzzled Chell, but she merely kept her eyes fixed on the woman and adjusted her aim slightly to the left so that she was pointing at the other woman again.

When Chell did this, the grin on the stranger's face was wiped away in an instant and confused she glanced behind her as if to check something. Shen then took another step to the side, and again Chell followed her with her gun. The expression on the woman's face now turned to that of complete lack of comprehension.

"Y-You can see me?" she asked uncertainly and pointed at her chest.

"Yes. It might be dark, but I can still–"

Chell didn't get to finish what she was saying for the woman suddenly started sprinting left from Chell's perspective. She was moving incredibly fast and at first Chell wasn't sure what to think of the situation that had changed so quickly. She kept following the black-haired woman with her gun without any intention of actually firing at her at first, but when she realized the other woman wasn't running away from her but circling her in a gradually tightening spiral with her at the center, Chell understood that she should feel threatened.

Unwilling to do anything that would mortally wound the other person, Chell tried to aim somewhere that wouldn't kill her and fired her gun. Attempting to yell something like "Stop or I'll shoot!" seemed like a waste of time given that the mysterious woman had decided to try to get to Chell in this very strategic yet risky manner which made her a difficult target by removing her need to run directly toward Chell at any given moment.

The shot missed and the girl realized she hadn't been leading her fast-moving target nearly enough. Making the necessary adjustment, Chell continued to track the woman who was starting to get dangerously close and fired off a second shot. This time the bullet hit the dark-haired woman in her left side and she let out a loud scream in pain but didn't seem to slow down one bit. In the dark Chell couldn't tell if the woman was bleeding or not, but she started to get a strong feeling she might be another android just like Tori.

The woman in black was now so close she was practically moving right toward the brunette. She only had time for one last shot, but now that the woman was hardly moving sideways in relation to her, all the girl needed to do was aim straight at her and pull the trigger. With the barrel of her pistol this time fixed directly at her target's chest, Chell squeezed the trigger without having time to think twice about her course of action.

To the young woman's amazement her eyes observed her attacker make an evasive move to the side just as she started pulling the trigger, but at that point it was already too late to do anything about it and Chell witnessed her bullet hit nothing but air. Then, before the girl could even take note of how it happened, the other woman was standing behind her and there was incredible pain in Chell's right arm as it was pulled high and far behind her and twisted in a way that forced her to drop her weapon on the ground. Her legs were then swept from under her, causing her to fall on her knees, and a cold knife appeared at her throat.

"**Slowly** lean forward until you can touch the ground," the woman holding Chell commanded sharply but in a collected tone.

With no choice but to do as she was told, the very frightened Chell started leaning forward as her captor continued holding onto her right arm and kept her knife hovering less than an inch away from the girl's neck. When Chell was low enough to place her left hand flat on the ground, the woman ordered her to stop and told her to support her weight with that hand. She then released the girl's right arm and ordered her to slowly place it on the ground as well. Once she had done so, Chell was told to very slowly lower herself down so that she was lying flat on the ground. The sharp blade stayed right at her throat the entire time until there was no longer room for it. It was then swiftly removed and the black-clad woman pressed Chell down on the ground hard with her right knee.

"Put your hands behind your head," the woman commanded. Again Chell did as she was told and noticed her hands were trembling slightly but less than she would have expected. "Interlock your fingers."

Once Chell had done as ordered, her captor started patting her torso with one hand while keeping her knife at the ready.

"You've got balls coming here. Everyone living within at least three hundred miles knows setting foot on this field is punishable by death," the woman spat while performing her body search.

_"What?"_ Chell felt her throat tighten and she was unable to breathe. The world started spinning around her. Tori had told her she was headed to a place where she would be safe. Had she lied to her? Or did she simply just not know? Chell had done her best to move in the direction the android had instructed, so it was unlikely she could have veered substantially off course. Chell wanted to desperately say something, tell this was all a big mistake, but her body was in panic mode and she couldn't utter even a single word.

"Lift up your body enough for me to search your front side," the woman said and slowly took her knee off of Chell's back so that the girl could raise her torso off the ground.

Not wanting to aggravate her captor any further, Chell's body moved almost as if on its own as she slowly lifted herself, avoiding any sudden movements that might be interpreted as hostile. The black-haired woman ran her hand over Chell's front and then told her to lower herself back on the ground. She then returned her knee on the girl's back and removed the canteen from her belt. She inspected it carefully and opened the cap with dexterity using just one hand. After cautiously smelling the content, the woman poured what was left in the canteen on Chell's head. "I suppose it was just water after all," she stated playfully after observing the brunette's puzzled reaction and threw the bottle away.

Once she'd concluded her rudimentary body search by checking Chell's legs, the woman spoke again. "Do you even realize how many sensors you managed to trigger while you've been on this field? SIXTEEN! How stupid are you? I can't believe you managed to hit me with that second shot. Hell, I don't understand how on earth you were able to see me." The assailant picked up the gun she had forced out of Chell's hand and examined it with interest. "An AS-500P, pretty impressive…" The woman fell silent for a moment. "This isn't locked," she then stated coldly. "You stole this gun, didn't you?" she demanded and pushed the gun forcefully against Chell's cheek.

"What? No! A girl called Tori gave that gun to me just in case. I swear I didn't steal that from anyone. That's the honest truth," Chell managed to answer hastily.

"A likely story," the woman said and pushed the gun's cool barrel even harder against the girl's skin. "I bet those boots are stolen as well," she hissed accusingly. "Get back up on your knees! Just like before but in reverse. One false move and you'll regret it."

The woman stood up and Chell used her arms to lift herself off the ground. Once she was as high as she could go, she lowered her knees back on the ground and slowly brought her upper body upright. The woman, who had apparently put the pistol away, at least for the time being, yanked Chell's hair roughly so that she was looking straight up into her captor's dark brown eyes and brought her blade back on the young woman's throat.

"Let me tell you something. I have permission to kill anyone I come across out here, and I don't even really need to talk to any of the intruders before I end their lives unless I want to. I have a couple of questions for you, but regardless of what you say you're going to be dead in a couple of minutes." The look in the woman's eyes left no doubt in Chell's mind that she meant what she'd said. "The only difference is that if I'm not happy with the answers you are giving me, you'll learn that there are worse things than simply dying. Are we clear?"

Chell swallowed hard and managed to only let out a low whimper in response, afraid of the sharp steel that was dangerously close to her delicate neck. The woman in black seemed to understand that her knife's proximity made the girl hesitant to speak so she moved it slightly farther from her neck. Not much, but enough to dispel Chell's fears of hurting herself if she tried to talk.

"Who sent you? What is your mission?" the woman demanded.

"No one sent me. A girl I met just told me I should head in this direction."

"This the same girl who gave you the gun?"

"Yes. She's a robot like you."

The expression on the dark brown-eyed woman's face changed in an instant to that of extreme anger.

"You've got some nerve, girl!" Chell's hair was pulled even harder than before causing her pain and the cold steel was pushed right up to her throat so that she could feel it pressed against her stretched skin. "You dare insult me by implying I'm nothing more than a machine? You chose the wrong woman to piss off. I'm an AI! Anyone with half a brain who has seen one of those cheap service bots you can buy at a department store should have no trouble telling the difference. Being called an android I can accept, but I have absolutely no tolerance for racists like you."

Chell was now sweating all over being completely helpless at the AI's mercy. She whimpered again and very slowly the blade gave her room to try to defend herself with words.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know that was an offensive thing to say."

"The hell you didn't! Watch your tongue, or you'll wish I'd simply slit your throat." The woman let go of Chell's hair and continued, "I'm going to give you one more chance to tell me something honest. If you do that, I promise I'll make this quick. Lie to me once more and I'm going to cut you open in all the right spots and watch as you slowly bleed to death on the ground. Is that understood?"

"Y-Yes," Chell answered weakly as she looked forward at the wheat swaying slowly in the wind. Things were getting worse, fast. But what could she possibly do? She was unarmed and the android had both a knife and a gun. On top of that she appeared to be faster and stronger than her and knew how to fight. If Chell was to try anything, she'd be as good as dead. The problem was that that seemed to also be her fate if she did nothing.

"You have no idea how **sick** I am of listening to the lies people like you dare to spit in my face, so I'm going to keep this simple; tell me your name. I don't care what your mission is or how on earth you thought you were going to accomplish it, but tell me this one thing and I'll put a quick end to your miserable little life."

Chell's mouth was starting to feel incredibly dry, but she managed to answer, "Chell, my name is Chell."

There was a long silence. "Chell what?"

"Chell…" the young girl started but she couldn't finish the sentence. **What** was her last name? When she had told Tori the only thing she could remember was her name she had thought she knew her whole name, but now that she tried to think about it, her last name escaped her completely. "I-I can't remember. I swear that's the truth."

"You honestly expect me to believe you can't remember your own name? Do you claim to have amnesia?"

"That's right. I woke up today and couldn't remember anything but my name. Or my first name it would seem…"

There was another long silence. "You claim to have lost you memory and say the only thing you can remember is that your name is Chell," the android summarized the girl's story. "The people who come here fall into two groups: those who try to tell me lies, and those who have the decency to just stay quiet and admit their failure. Some of the people try to play dumb with me but usually people have come up with incredibly elaborate stories to try to convince me they have some sort of business here. Naturally I kill them all in the end because no one who has business here actually simply comes walking on this field."

A strong gust blew through the field and brought goose bumps to the girl's skin. She could sense that the end was drawing near.

"Your story, however, is the weakest I've ever come across," the AI continued. "You give me so little information that I can only wonder how on earth you possibly expect to convince me to let you live. Had you not come here armed and with obvious knowledge of how to shoot a gun, I might've let you entertain me with you story for a while longer, but I think I've heard enough from you."

"NO! Please wait! I–" Chell began, but the android's hand covered her mouth, silencing her. The girl's blood ran completely cold.

_"No! No… This can't be it. It can't end like this,"_ the girl thought. She closed her eyes and held her breath, trying to prepare for what was coming. _"This is all just a bad dream. In just a few seconds I'm going to wake up in my bed, covered in cold sweat, but alive and safe."_

Time seemed to almost stop as the young woman's heart started to beat faster and faster with each passing moment. Just waiting for the cold steel to sink into her flesh at any moment felt excruciating and Chell felt like the anticipation alone could kill her. Yet the moment she feared never seemed to come.

Fearful that even the slightest of movements would trigger what she dreaded, Chell parted her eyelids ever so slightly. Not being able to hold her breath any longer, she slowly breathed out into her captor's hand and then breathed in again. The android's artificial skin didn't smell that different from a human's; if there was a difference, it was too minute for Chell to distinguish.

"Dammit," she heard the AI mutter to herself, "Why am I even considering this? I'm definitely going to regret this."

The hand disappeared from the girl's mouth but the pistol was pushed against her back, after which the knife was withdrawn as well.

"Get up. Try anything and you get a bullet in the back," the android stated calmly but with authority in her voice.

Chell got up as instructed but did not dare look back at her captor.

"What's going on?"

"Walk," was the only response she got.

The two of them started heading deeper into the seemingly endless field of wheat with the woman clad in black staying a couple of meters behind the human at all times.

"I'm bringing you in to be detained. Don't think this changes anything. This only means it's going to be someone else who pulls the trigger, not me, and instead of being buried on this field you'll probably be cremated. If you had any legitimate reason to be here, you would've already told me that long ago. When whoever processes your case sees that in my report, they'll likely sentence you for immediate execution without even hearing what you have to say. The only real difference is that soon you'll stop being my problem and become someone else's."

"Then why are you doing this?" is what Chell wanted to ask, but she had no desire to possibly make her detainer reverse her decision, so she quickly swallowed her question.

The two of them continued walking in silence, the only sound between them being the crackling coming from the wheat as they moved through it. The atmosphere was still heavy but Chell was hopeful that she'd find a way to somehow escape the situation now that she'd been given some additional time to live.

As the field seemed to just go on and on, the young woman's mind started to slowly drift. Everything around seemed exactly the same and after a while it became impossible to tell how far and how long they'd walked. It could have been twenty minutes, or an hour and twenty minutes. Chell was starting to feel tired, but just as she was about to ask how long the android expected her to keep walking, she looked up and saw a small shack in front of them no more than two hundred yards away.

Chell couldn't figure out why the AI could have possibly wanted to bring her to a place like this, but then when they got closer she noticed there was a small camera above the metal door along with what appeared to be a speaker. There was also some sort of peculiar panel right next to the door.

As they entered the camera's field of vision, a man's voice came out of the speaker. "That you Scythe?"

"Of course it's me Steve," Chell's captor answered matter-of-factly. "How could you mistake me for someone else?" she added pretending to sound hurt.

"I see you're as charming as always. Who's your friend?"

"Just an intruder I found wandering on the field."

"Why's she still alive then? I don't remember you ever bringing someone in before. This isn't like you Scythe."

"I make my own decisions, Steve. It's up to me to decide what to do with the people that come on my sector," the android whose name appeared to be Scythe replied. Chell thought she could hear a hint of irritation in her voice.

"You do understand how much paperwork is involved with bringing a person into custody? Not for just you, but me as well."

"Stop complaining like a child. That's part of our job. You know how much I hate doing paperwork, but I still do it when I have to. If you don't want to fill forms and write reports, you should't have applied for your position."

"Hey, I didn't mean to sound like I was whining, okay? I chose this job 'cause it's pretty lax. I'm just saying that I don't get why you'd bring someone here. Does she have some special mitigating circumstances? Because if she doesn't, she's just going to get offed anyway. You know that as well as I do."

"Fine. You're right. I guess I should just shoot her right here and get it over with." As she said that, the android pressed the pistol against the back of Chell's head.

"Wait!" the man called Steve yelled. "Don't shoot her in front of the camera! One of the reasons I picked this job was that I wouldn't need to see stuff like that."

"You're such a hypocrite Steve, and a coward."

"Fine, maybe I am," the man on the intercom admitted reluctantly. "Whose gun is that anyway? You never carry one, so it must be hers, right? …Wait, is that a bullet wound on your side? Did she manage to hit you? How did that happen?"

"She could see me," the AI stated in a serious tone.

"WHAT?!" Steve yelled so loud that his voice was distorted by the electronics. "How is that possible? She's human right? I can see the beads of sweat glittering on her forehead."

"Yes she is. I'm as puzzled as you are."

The man on the other end became quiet for a moment. Then he suddenly spoke again. "Wait. Let me check something." A strange field appeared from the device beside the door and scanned Chell from head to toe. "I know why," Steve said once the scan had finished, sounding very self-satisfied.

"Well, are you going to tell me, or just brag about it?"

"Her implants are off."

"WHAT?" Now it was the android's turn to be surprised. Chell couldn't see it, but Scythe's mouth was hanging wide open.

"It's true. I don't know how she knew to do that, but together with the fact that she managed to hit you I can only conclude that she must be a pro. You should definitely not bring her in here. What if she gets loose and manages to kill a dozen guards before someone finally manages to gun her down? You'd be the one responsible for that, you understand that, right? Not me, not the guards watching her, **you**."

"I dunno about her being a pro. You should have seen her: she was just standing still like a dumbass when I came at her."

"Still, she managed to hit you. That's impressive. I've seen you move girl, and you're fast."

"Thanks for the compliment. I think she must just have really good implants and got in a lucky shot."

"Aren't you forgetting that she couldn't have used her implants because otherwise she wouldn't have been able to see you?"

"Shit."

"Hahaha," Steve laughed amused, "I think she might be better than you care to admit."

"Even if that's true, I've made up my mind. I'll take full responsibility for anything that might happen, so just call up the elevator for us, will ya?"

"I should have known there's no way I'll ever talk you out of anything Scythe. You're one stubborn AI."

"Just open the door already."

"I can't let you in before you tell me today's password."

"Right. My password is Q6DN… No wait, that's yesterday's password, isn't it? Today's password is 7FQR33JI."

A green light appeared on the panel and the shack's thick metal door flung open, revealing its small, dimly lit interior.

"Indeed it is. The elevator will be there shortly. Just don't say I didn't warn ya."

"Thanks Steve," Scythe replied, but she sounded more annoyed with her coworker at this point than genuinely appreciative.

The android instructed Chell to move into the shack, but as the two were about to enter Steve spoke once more. "Hey Scythe, you should have that wound looked at."

"I will, once my shift is over. Thanks for the concern," the AI replied, her tone this time much softer than before.

There wasn't really anything of interest inside the shack beside a cylindrical device that was obviously intended to receive the elevator that was supposed to come up. Chell and her captor were made to wait a short while for the elevator took a couple of minutes to arrive.

After the glass doors had opened Scythe nudged Chell in the back with the pistol and said, "Prisoners first." Chell wasn't sure if she was just imagining it, but to her the android sounded less cold than before, almost like she found something about the situation entertaining.

The girl stepped into the really small glass tube and the AI followed suit. The gun was once again pressed tightly against Chell's back, not to intimidate her, but simply because the elevator was kind of a tight fit for two people and there was hardly any room to spare. You could have probably squeezed a third person inside the elevator but that would have made for a situation most uncomfortable for all parties involved.

The doors closed behind them and the elevator began its decent into the depths of the earth. Chell kept her back turned to the AI because she assumed that was how the android wanted it. There wasn't anything else than ground to look at outside the elevator but the girl noticed she could clearly see Scythe's face reflected in the glass.

Almost immediately after Chell had spotter the reflection, Scythe turned her eyes so that they were looking directly at Chell. This gave the girl a scare but she recovered relatively quickly despite the intensity of the android's stare. For some reason Chell found that the more time she spent with the AI the less she was scared of her. She had no doubts that Scythe wouldn't hesitate to shoot her if she tried to escape or attack her, but had they met under different circumstances Chell wanted to believe they might've actually gotten along reasonably well – maybe.

When they had been walking on the field the girl had been afraid to open her mouth in fear of angering her captor, but now she no longer felt inhibited in the same manner and opened a conversation without really feeling all that frightened anymore.

"So your name is Scythe, huh?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Of course it's not. That's just a nickname."

"Oh…" Chell said, feeling a bit embarrassed because her question has probably been very inconsiderate. "Can I ask what's your name then?"

"You can ask, but I certainly won't tell you." Chell had expected a response like that but she still hadn't been able to help her curiosity. "If you're trying to befriend the person who captured you, I think you're a bit too late, plus it would never work on me."

"I-I know. And I wasn't trying anything like that."

Chell quieted for a moment. The conversation hadn't begun very well but there were still other things she wanted to say.

"I'm sorry I shot you," she said after a moment of silence and cast down her eyes. The apology was genuine; she'd had no desire to shoot anyone. She had simply acted out of self-defense because she'd been afraid. "…I hope it doesn't hurt too much."

"If it's my forgiveness that you seek, you are never going to get it."

Chell's head sunk even lower.

"Don't misunderstand me. It has nothing to do with whether I forgive you or not. There simply is nothing to forgive."

The girl looked back into the android's reflected eyes completely bewildered.

"Instead of being sorry, the only thing you should be feeling is regret. Regret that you didn't aim for my head instead of my torso. Had you hit me in the head at that range you might've had a chance to disorient me for long enough to finish the job. That was the mistake you made and now you are probably going to end up dead because of it."

The words Scythe spoke were cold, but her tone wasn't. Chell understood that those words reflected strongly who Scythe was as person but they didn't really reflect who Chell was. Still, the young woman found the AI's personal way of looking at things quite fascinating and she appreciated the android's weird way of trying to say none of this was personal. Chell twitched one corner of her mouth up, attempting to signal she had understood what the AI was saying – more or less at least.

There was a brief silence, but then Scythe added, "And no, it doesn't hurt that much. I'm used to a lot worse."

Chell didn't smile, but that had definitely been the friendliest thing the android had said to her so far. After another small moment of silence the girl spoke again: "Back there on the surface when you pointed the gun at my head, you were only trying to make that guy shut up, weren't you?"

"Steve is a nice guy but he can be a moron sometimes. I was hoping to cut the conversation short but wasn't quite successful. It was worth a try at least."

"He did have a point, though. Like him, I don't get why you are bringing me here."

"Frankly speaking, I don't understand it myself. It's probably just that I can't figure you out at all. Too many things about you are contradicting with one another. On one hand you seem as naïve in many ways as you make yourself out to be, but on the other hand many things about you also make alarm bells ring in my head."

Chell swallowed hard. "Do you really think I'd try to hurt people?"

"It's hard to say… But I definitely think you're dangerous. I can smell it. There's more to you than meets the eye, I'm sure of it. I sense that you're a person who will strive to achieve her goals, no matter what the obstacles are. The spark is right there in your eyes if one looks close enough."

Chell swallowed again. She wasn't sure if she liked the AI's answer. Her mouth was starting to feel dry but perhaps she was just imagining it.

"But didn't you say I was behaving like an amateur? And you disarmed me so easily… Do you seriously think I'm a dangerous person?"

"I can't help but think that might've been just an act. I've never before let an intruder live, but perhaps you are so good that you somehow knew exactly what to say and do to manipulate me into bringing you here."

Chell needed a moment to process the AI's response before she continued.

"I know this isn't something someone in my position should say, but… why did you bring me here if you think that?"

Scythe remained quiet for a while before she answered. "Perhaps I want to know how dangerous you really are. That probably doesn't sound like a rational explanation, and it isn't, but this way I'll find out what your true colors were. If something does happen down here, I'm prepared to take responsibility for my poor judgement and be demoted if necessary. I've heard all kinds of stories during the time I've been in this job, but in the end I can always tell that the people are lying through their teeth. Your story, however, is so unoriginal and weak that I find it hard to believe anyone would trust their life on it managing to convince me to spare them. I think I'm just too curious to simply kill you."

Chell was about to say something but the android suddenly continued cutting her short. "You know, you could have nailed me with that third shot but the expression on your face changed just as you were about to pull the trigger, revealing to me exactly when to dodge. In battle you must never let you enemy know what you're thinking. If you do, you lose."

The sudden change in subject threw Chell slightly off guard. "Why are you telling me this?" she inquired uncertainly.

"I dunno. It's probably too late for that bit of wisdom to be of any use to you, but you're a pretty decent shot so I guess I figured you might find it interesting to hear, that's all."

Chell took a moment to ponder what Scythe had just said and decided to inquire a bit further into the matter. "Well what kind of sign did I give? Did my face twitch or something?"

"No, nothing incredibly obvious like that. I could just tell from the look in your eyes what you were about to do."

"How am I supposed to conceal something like that?" Chell asked, baffled.

"Lots of practice and self-discipline I guess." After the AI had said that, the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. "Unfortunately you don't really have time for that. I did find our little chat entertaining though."

The time they'd spent in the elevator had helped Chell feel a little bit more at ease, but now that the ride was over and they had arrived somewhere deep underground, the gravity of her situation came crashing back down on her. "But what if I'm actually telling the truth?" she asked the android, beginning to now feel quite desperate.

Scythe's response was most unexpected. She merely laughed very hard. In the middle of her laughter she tried to say something but failed and just continued laughing. Once her laughter had finally died down, the AI simply said, "Let's go."

Scythe backed out of the elevator and Chell was finally able to turn around. The girl stepped out of the glass tube and looked around curiously. They were in a decent-sized entrance hall with some benches by the walls and a security point waiting for them across the room. There were two desks, one by the wall on the left and the other by the wall on the right. Two men dressed in uniforms that made them look like security guards were standing directly across the elevator by the empty middle section of the wall the security checks were on. In the corners opposite the security desks stood another two guards. All were standing around casually but wore a pistol holster on their belt and were keeping a keen eye on Chell and Scythe. In addition to the eyeballs directed at them several cameras scattered around the room also seemed to be expressing interest in the pair.

Scythe put the pistol away, apparently confident the unarmed Chell wouldn't dare to do anything rash in the presence of armed guards, and signaled the human to follow her. Without really having any other option, the girl followed the black-haired android across the gray-tiled floor of the white-walled room over to the desk on the left.

A young girl wearing a blue jumpsuit greeted them with a smile from behind a thick security glass. "Good evening," the girl's gentle voice echoed out of a small speaker by the glass.

"Evening. I'm bringing in an intruder," Scythe answered the girl in a casual manner.

"Very well. May I ask if you're an AI, ma'am?" the girl asked the android politely.

"I am indeed."

"Then you know we have to scan your brain for any signs of brainwashing before you can enter. Do you wish to do that now or after we've checked your prisoner?"

"Now's fine."

"As you wish."

The girl pressed a button but instead of the heavy security door next to her booth the glass covering a very advanced looking pod installed on the wall opened and Scythe stepped inside it. The cover closed and the android closed her eyes. Then the machine seemed to come to life as countless small lights started turning on and off forming complex patterns, their meaning completely unknown to Chell. After about a minute the device was done and Scythe stepped out of the pod again.

"Thank you. No manipulation or corruption detected. Shall we move on to the prisoner?"

"Go right ahead," Scyther replied.

The heavy door by the booth opened, revealing a small space behind it with another identical door on the other side. Scythe motioned with her head for Chell to enter. After hesitating for a moment the girl reluctantly did as instructed. Once she was inside, the door closed behind her and Chell immediately started to feel claustrophobic. The space she was in was even smaller than the elevator they'd used, only having enough room for one person to stand in. Chell felt an incredible urge to shout for someone to let her out of there but then she heard the security girl's sweet voice coming from a speaker: "Please stand still while the scan is in progress."

Several fields of different color started scanning Chell's body in various directions. The process seemed quite thorough but after thirty seconds it was over and the brunette could hear the girl talking to Scythe over the intercom. "Ma'am, she's equipped with implants I've never seen in my life. I'm positive none of them are available on the open market. Are you certain you want to brink a person like _her_ inside the facility?"

"Am I obligated to explain myself to you?" Scythe pressed in a harsh tone.

"Of course not," the girl replied quickly, "I'm just trying to ensure everyone's safety, ma'am. That is my job."

"And I appreciate that. Our jobs are similar in many ways. I will, however, take responsibility for the prisoner."

"Understood ma'am."

The door in front of Chell opened and two big security guards were waiting for her on the other side. The girl walked out cautiously and stopped in front of the guards. She could hear the door close behind her. A few moments later Scythe came through the same set of doors and stopped to stand right behind her prisoner.

"Cuff her," Scythe instructed the men. "She's human, so a regular pair will do just fine."

One of the men pulled out a pair of handcuffs and gestured for the girl to turn around. Chell's chest started to ache but she slowly turned around and found herself looking directly into Scythe's dark brown eyes. While they had still been on the surface Chell had held on to a hope of somehow escaping from the place she was being taken to, but after seeing what kind of security measures were in place for just entering the facility, that small flicker of hope had started diminishing rapidly. Not knowing what to do, all Chell had left was look at her captor, hoping she would suddenly start feeling sympathy for her. The girl could not read from the AI's eyes what she was thinking but Scythe did not help her.

Chell's hands were pulled behind her back and cold steel snapped around her wrists.

"Search her pockets to make sure she doesn't have anything she could use to open the cuffs," Scythe commanded. "No, wait," she then revised herself, "Let me do it. A lady wouldn't want strange men touching her butt, now would she?"

The AI had an amused smile on her face while she searched the side and back pockets of Chell's pants. "Empty, like I thought. You truly are an enigma, aren't you?"

Scythe gestured with her head to the two men standing behind Chell and they came forward to stand right next to the girl. "As much as I'd like to have another try at cracking the puzzle, I have to write a report about you and then get back to work. From here on someone else decides what's going to happen to you. These men shall escort you to… I don't even know – somewhere. If I get an angry call from my superior tomorrow, I'll know you caused trouble. If I don't, I can assume that you actually were just a foolish girl who stuck her nose in the wrong place. I'm sorry if that's the case, but I don't make up the rules."

Chell didn't know what to say and she was trying to hold back tears at this point, so she didn't say anything to the android and just remained silent. One of the men pulled her arm to signal her to come with them. Chell turned around and walked for a short distance but then she stopped and turned to look back. Scythe was still watching her. She raised her hand as a form of goodbye and then started walking in a different direction than where the men were taking Chell.

One of the guards shoved her. "Keep moving."

They entered a long corridor and walked in silence with the two men always staying a step or two behind Chell. The girl assumed it to be some kind of security measure but wondered how necessary that was when the men were dealing with an unarmed woman wearing handcuffs.

After walking for a couple of minutes Chell and her escorts entered an elevator and rode it down. Thankfully the round elevator was much larger than the one she'd been on with Scythe but sadly it also wasn't a glass elevator like the first one. There hadn't actually been anything for the girl to look at during their ride down from the surface, but Chell assumed that had they ridden it deeper underground there would've eventually been something worth seeing that warranted making the walls out of glass.

Once the elevator had reached its destination, Chell wasn't very delighted to find herself in a corridor that could have been a replica of the one they'd been in before. The group walked for what seemed like a long time with the men occasionally telling the girl to turn at an intersection which typically only took them to yet another incredibly long and boring hallway filled with doors. The young woman could only speculate where each of them led.

From time to time the three walked past other people headed toward an unknown destination. Most were walking casually but some seemed to be in a hurry. Many people wore casual clothing, some were dressed in more formal attire looking like they could be office workers, and the ones in white lab coats couldn't be mistaken for anything else than scientists. It surprised Chell to see several people clad in jumpsuits of various colors similar to the one the girl at the security check had worn.

Two of the scientists they walked past were engaged in a passionate conversation about something science-related but Chell could only understand a few words of what they were saying; the rest consisted of terms she wasn't familiar with and they might as well have been talking in another language. Occasionally they came across other security guards on duty and they typically gave Chell a long look as they walked past. The reactions from other people varied, but typically they either pretended not to even see the girl or eyed her with suspicion.

On the ride down from the surface Chell had speculated that they might have been headed to a secret military complex, which would have at least to some extent explained the incredibly strict policy regarding intruders, but nothing she had seen seemed to support that thesis. This place looked more like a research facility than anything else. If the size of the field above was even remotely tied to the size of the underground complex, Chell could only wonder who could have possibly built such a place. Just trying to imagine the scale of the entire facility made her head hurt.

The girl was pulled out of her thoughts when she realized they'd entered a room and the guards escorting her had stopped by the door. They closed the door and one of the men removed her handcuffs. "You can sit on the couch," he said and joined his friend guarding the door.

Chell looked around the room which wasn't what she had expected, although she hadn't really known what to even expect. It looked like a small breakroom for the staff and had a couch, a dining table and a kitchenette. The girl could only wonder why she'd been brought here of all places but seeing the water tap reminded her of how incredibly thirsty she was.

"Can I have some water?" she asked the men by the door.

"Go ahead," one of them replied and continued standing resolutely by the door.

Without wasting time, Chell went over to the faucet and quenched her thirst with the refreshingly cold water. She felt the temptation to drink as much as she possibly could, but refrained, not wanting to be asking the guards within the next five minutes if she could use the bathroom. After closing the faucet Chell sat on the couch which was positioned opposite the door and the guards and simply waited. There was no clock in the room so the girl had no way to keep track of the passage of time but the minutes went past very slowly and Chell was growing bored and sleepy. The uncomfortable feeling in her stomach kept trying to remind her that she could possibly be waiting for her own execution, but Chell managed to keep the fear mostly at bay – for the time being at least.

"How long am I just supposed to sit here?" Chell finally asked but neither of the men answered her.

The girl tried to think of something to keep her mind occupied, but she was only able to entertain herself for a couple of minutes before her mind was filled with gloomy thoughts again. Deciding that just waiting around like this was pointless, Chell took off her long fall boots and lay down on the couch.

"I'm going to take a nap. Is that okay?" she asked the guards but again neither of them replied. Chell decided to take that as a yes and closed her eyes. For a while her mind kept racing, but eventually the girl slipped into a light sleep.

A woman's voice woke Chell up. She wasn't sure how long she'd slept and she didn't even remember if she'd dreamed or not. By the door a woman wearing high heels, a pencil skirt and a blouse was talking to the guards, apparently giving them instructions. She wasn't talking loud enough for Chell to hear her properly so the girl could only guess to the exact content of their conversation.

Once the woman was finished talking, Chell, who had sat back up on the couch and put on her boots, spoke up. "Who are you? Where's Scythe?"

"Who's Scythe?" the woman inquired, perplexed by the unexpected question.

"The… woman who brought me here," Chell answered slowly. The woman appeared to not be familiar with the AI who had detained Chell. The girl wasn't even entirely sure why she'd inquired where the android was but likely she would have simply preferred to see a familiar face rather than a complete stranger.

"She's probably back doing her job," the woman said coolly and turned back to the men, ignoring Chell. She talked with the guards very briefly and then left the room without even looking Chell's way.

"Would you come with us, miss?" one of the guards said. The sentence was in the form of a question but the tone of the man's voice sounded to Chell like she didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

Reluctantly the brunette forced herself up from the sofa and walked over to the door. One of the men opened it for her and they started walking through the corridor again. Chell felt like a zombie as she just mindlessly followed the guards' instructions and kept staring down at the floor as they went. They entered the nearest elevator but Chell didn't even register whether they were moving up or down, or how long the ride took.

When they got off the elevator the prospect of trying to run away from the men briefly crossed Chell's mind but she dismissed the thought very quickly; both of the guards were armed and undoubtedly wouldn't have much trouble hitting a girl running down a straight hallway. Their journey towards an unknown destination continued with only the sound of the three sets of footsteps echoing in the otherwise quiet corridor. It wasn't until the buzzing of people talking in the large room they'd entered made zombie Chell snap back into full awareness that she realized the guards hadn't handcuffed her.

Noticing that the guards weren't even beside her anymore, the girl looked back and saw the two men standing by the entrance chatting with each other, no longer paying any attention to her. Perplexed by this, the young woman turned back to face the room. It was circular in shape and very respectable in size, not just horizontally but vertically as well. The room had four entrances and the sides were filled with computer workstations and there were huge monitors on the walls. Towards the middle of the room there were more computers places in a circle with some gaps in it, but somewhat peculiarly a large open space had been left at the center.

Chell felt drawn towards the middle for a reason that was beyond her, and without even realizing it, she started approaching it with slow, steady steps. Something about the ceiling fascinated her and she kept her eyes fixed on it. Once she got near the circle of computers surrounding the middle, the brunette saw a quick flash, as if her mind thought something very large extending almost all the way to the floor should have been hanging in the center of the room.

"Reminiscing the past?" a voice asked right next to Chell.

Startled, the girl looked to her right and saw a gorgeous looking woman taller than her standing next to her. The woman had long, silky blonde hair which she was wearing up, arranged in an elaborate and highly elegant fashion. The pearl white one-piece suit covering her with intricate patterns on it looked absolutely stunning, not to mention extremely expensive, but also like it was perfectly combat-ready. Rose red lipstick helped accentuate the woman's lips and she wore a modest amount of makeup to enhance her appearance, but undoubtedly the most distinctive feature about her were her captivating yellow eyes which almost seemed like they were glowing. Chell couldn't tell if that was actually the case or not, but she had no intention to ask this mysterious woman to come into a dark room with her so she could find out. One thing was absolutely certain though: this woman was definitely not just another employee.

If the eyes weren't already a dead giveaway, the voice in which the woman had spoken had clearly been synthetic unlike Tori's or Scythe's – she was definitely an android. There was something very mesmerizing about the woman's whole presence and it took Chell several long moments before she was able to break away from staring deep into the depths of her eyes.

"I'm sorry, but do I know you?" the girl finally asked after what must have been an abnormally long delay.

The friendly smile that had been on the AI's face fainted away and obvious confusion appeared in its place. For a moment the woman just stared at Chell without saying anything but then she suddenly burst out laughing wholeheartedly, her warm half-synthetic voice echoing throughout the hall.

"Sorry, took me a moment to realize that was a joke," the android eventually managed to say while still laughing. "That's a new one."

The AI continued laughing, but when she noticed Chell wasn't laughing with her, her laughter died down and her expression became more serious.

"Wait. When I got here the program I wrote to flag documents that contain certain keywords notified me of a file containing the high-priority tag 'Chell'. I only read that a woman calling herself Chell had been apprehended walking on the field. When I saw the attached picture of you I assumed there'd been some kind of mix-up and immediately ordered you to be brought here and headed here myself. Give me a second to read the rest of the report."

The woman stared blankly into space for a couple of seconds and then turned her head back to Chell.

"You've lost your memory?" the android gasped.

Chell didn't feel that words were necessary, so she simply nodded.

"That's awful. I'm so sorry Chell. You need to see a doctor as soon as possible. Oh, but how impolite of me, you don't even know who I am." The AI extended her hand and Chell shook it after only a moment's hesitation. "I'm the Genetic Lifeform and Disk Operating System – but no one calls me that, not even my mother. Call me GLaDOS."

"You have a mother?" Chell blurted out astonished before she could stop herself. Her hand shot to cover her mouth as she feared she'd just said something incredibly offensive.

The girl's fears turned out to be unnecessary for her careless question was only met with laughter. "Hahaha. Of course I don't. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that an AI can't have a mother, I'm just a bit of a special case. A lot of people here actually wouldn't be completely unfounded in calling **me** their mother, but if anyone actually dared to call me 'Mom' to my face, I would cut off their fingers one by one."

Chell, who had so far gotten a reasonably positive impression of the woman standing before her, was fazed by the blonde AI's unexpectedly cruel statement.

"Oh, don't look so grim. I would naturally pay for the replacement parts. What use would I have for employees without any digits in their hands? Hahahaa." GLaDOS laughed again in her low, soft tone and Chell wondered if the whole thing was just a joke or not. "Anyway, let me once again welcome you to Aperture Science. I am the one in charge and this here is what could be called the hub or the command center. It is in a way the heart of Aperture. All important information goes through here and gets processed. In addition, the people working here try to ensure that every department is working at peak efficiency and attempt to locate and solve problems if that is not the case."

"Do **I** work for you?" Chell asked. It had come as no surprise to her that the AI conversing with her was the boss around here; one could tell just from the way she carried herself that she was a woman of authority.

"In a manner of speaking. You are my second-in-command – but also my best friend," GLaDOS replied with a warm smile. "I would trust you with my life."

Chell wasn't sure what kind of answer she had expected, but the android's response took her completely by surprise, although it also helped to explain the AI's friendly demeanor towards her. The girl didn't know what to say, so she just kept looking at GLaDOS and tried to imagine in her head what kind of history they had together.

"There's someone you should meet, or perhaps reacquaint would be a better term," GLaDOS said, interrupting Chell's thought process. "Marianne! Come over here," she shouted to someone across the room and quickly a woman who could have been around Chell's age emerged from a group of people hovering over one of the large computer terminals and walked over to them. She was wearing a dark green knee-length skirt with black lines that formed a loose square pattern and a red long-sleeved turtleneck sweater, which together with the skirt made her look stylish yet still formal at the same time. The woman had gorgeous wavy chestnut hair which she wore loose and reached below her shoulder blades. When the young woman stopped in front of them, Chell could see that she had beautiful bright green eyes which looked like emeralds.

"Yes Mistress?" the girl asked and looked directly at GLaDOS.

"Chell, this is Marianne. She's my personal assistant but is also in charge of the command center when neither of us is present."

The chestnut-haired girl became very confused by what GLaDOS had just said. Her eyes switched rapidly between the two women as she attempted to process the situation. "B-But Ma'am, I don't understand. Chell and I know each other very well. I've been here even longer than she has."

"Marianne dear, it saddens me to tell you that Chell has lost all of her memories."

Marianne gasped, clapping a hand over her mouth. "Is that true?" she asked Chell wide-eyed.

"I'm afraid it is," Chell said.

"I'm incredibly sorry to hear that, Chell," the emerald-eyed girl said and placed her hand on Chell's shoulder. "Is there anything we can do?"

"I want you to arrange Chell an appointment with Dr. Darlton for tomorrow morning. If he says he's busy, tell him this is more important and that the order comes directly from me," GLaDOS said and Marianne nodded.

"I will take care of it, Ma'am."

"Marianne is the most reliable assistant one could hope for," GLaDOS said directing her words at Chell. "She is very humble, but when she's in command she's determined, unwavering and even a bit frightening in the way she hands down orders demanding perfect obedience. Not many dare to question her, and the ones that do end up regretting it. She even scares me sometimes. It's a good thing I won't ever be in a position where I would have to take orders from her. The same goes for you Chell, hahaha."

"I'm just trying to do my job, Ma'am," Marianne said bashfully.

"I know dear, I'm just wondering what awaits your future partner in life." GLaDOS chuckled and as the faintest hint of a blush crept on the chestnut-haired girl's cheeks she turned back to Chell. "Whenever you need to have something taken care of for you, Marianne is your go-to woman for that. But more importantly she brews the best cup of tea you are likely to ever drink in your life."

"You flatter me too much, Ma'am."

"You're so modest, but honestly, when are you going to start calling me Gladdy, Marianne?"

"T-There's no way I could possibly do that, Ma'am," Marianne uttered blushing furiously, her cheeks turning a lovely shade of pink.

"I know. That's what makes you so adorable. At least you sometimes manage to call me GLaDOS."

"Yes, sometimes…" Marianne mumbled shyly.

Chell decided this was as a good opportunity for her to cut into the conversation. "Can I ask you a question?" she asked GLaDOS's flushing assistant.

"But of course, you can ask me anything you want Chell," the girl replied, managing to regain some of her composure.

"I don't know if this is a polite thing to ask someone, but…" Chell began, gradually losing courage as she went along, "…are you a human or an AI? I have difficulties telling the two apart," she then managed to conclude shyly.

"Oh, I'm a human, just like you," Marianne answered smiling happily. "There's no need to feel embarrassed. Even I don't know which of the people I work with are androids and which are human. After a while you kind of stop thinking about things like that."

"I see…" Chell replied, feeling slightly less alienated by the knowledge that there were other humans in the facility. After being in contact with Tori, Scythe and GLaDOS who were all androids, Chell had started wondering if she was the only human in Aperture.

"If there's nothing else either of you want to discuss with me, I should return to my duties." Marianne said. "I hope from the bottom of my heart that the doctor is able to help you Chell."

"Thanks, I hope so too," Chell replied and after receiving an approving nod from GLaDOS the young woman headed back to the other people busy at work.

"Do you always tease her like that?" Chell asked once the wavy-haired assistant was out of earshot.

"She makes it so easy, how could I possibly resist?" GLaDOS said amused. "Is there something you want to do about the person who apprehended you?" she then continued in a more serious tone.

"What? No– I mean, I was really scared but she didn't hurt me or anything… And wasn't she just doing her job? Even though I don't understand how you can kill people so lightly. Surely that's not even legal."

"Legal?" GLaDOS repeated, "Of course not. But you could say that we're at war, and war sometimes requires you to take measures that are a bit… extreme. Had you waltzed into enemy territory they would have treated you the exact same way, probably even worse if you'd told them who you were."

"But you're right," the AI said after a brief pause, "there's no reason to punish the guardian; there was no way she could have known you were actually the real Chell. People know your name but not your face and we're doing our best to keep it that way. If you hadn't lost your memory, you would have used one of the other, better hidden, entrances and there would have been no problem. No one really uses the shack anymore, it's just there for emergencies and such."

_"I guess Tori didn't know since she's not part of Aperture…"_ Chell thought to herself. _"Thankfully everything turned out okay in the end. I just wish this doctor can help me. That would solve all or most of my other problems."_

"I know you must have a lot of question for me, but I just got back after being away for a couple of days and there are a lot of things that require my attention. It's also getting late and you must be exhausted. I'll show you to your room and in the morning someone will come to wake you up and take you to see Dr. Darlton. If anyone can figure out what's wrong with you, he can. I'll come see you after you've been to the doctor so we can have a proper one-on-one and you can ask me whatever you want, OK?"

"OK," Chell agreed. The day's events had been a strain on her and despite the nap she'd taken the brunette found herself in desperate need of rest.

"Splendid. Follow me."

Chell followed GLaDOS over to a section of the wall at the edge of the big hall which was somewhat peculiarly left almost completely bare without any computers or monitors on it. There were just two vertical bars attached to the wall with blue lights on them and a knob next to them. The bars were slightly more than a person's width apart and about the same height as a door. Chell eyed the device with interest.

"I assume you're no longer familiar with portals?"

Chell shook her head. "Tori – the girl who helped me – mentioned something about a portal gun but she was in a hurry and said it would be hard to explain."

GLaDOS nodded. "It is indeed something that takes some time to wrap your head around. Let me show you one of the things that makes Aperture Science so special."

The android pressed the switch and Chell held her breath as a blue-rimmed oval suddenly appeared on the wall. In it the girl could see what looked like part of one of Aperture's boring, white-walled corridors she was already all too familiar with.

"What is that?" the brunette gasped bewildered. "Is it real?"

"Why don't you touch it?" the android suggested with a playful smile on her face.

"What?"

"Go ahead. It's perfectly safe."

Chell swallowed and after gathering all her courage she slowly reached her hand toward the oval on the wall. Just as her fingertips were about to touch it, a man walked past the vision, making the girl jump and her hand shoot back to her chest to try to calm her racing heart.

"Sorry about that," GLaDOS apologized. "Aperture is a busy place. Someone is always bound to be headed somewhere – even at this hour."

"That is not just an image, is it?" Chell asked, having gotten her nerves somewhat back under control.

"No," the blonde AI replied, "it's much more than that."

Tired of her own timidness, Chell thrust her hand toward the corridor she saw on the wall, and even though she had kind of expected it at this point, she was still amazed when her hand went through where there had previously been a solid wall and entered the hallway she'd seen the man walking in just moments before.

"Incredible! There really is a hole there!" the girl voiced her amazement and looked at GLaDOS like a child who thought she'd made a big discovery and wanted her parents to praise her for it.

"Oh, so you think it's a hole in the wall? That that corridor is behind this wall, hmm?"

GLaDOS smirked and told Chell to remove her hand from the portal. She then turned the dial on the wall. The corridor disappeared and was replaced by what looked like a laboratory. The android kept rotating the switch a step at a time, cycling through various hallways and rooms. Finally she stopped at what seemed like a living quarter.

"This is your room. It's only about five minutes away from here by foot but portals are a much more convenient way to travel. I've yet to meet a person who has thought otherwise. C'mon, let's go."

The android grabbed Chell's hand and walked through the portal pulling the girl along with her. Before Chell had time to protest she was already on the other side and she immediately turned around to look at the hole she'd just come through. The edge of the portal was orange on this side and she could see the large chamber they'd come from like it was just there next to the bedroom they were now standing in. The noisy ambience from the hall could still be heard clearly. GLaDOS pushed the button on this side and the portal vanished leaving behind nothing but a wall and the room became silent.

"See how great portals are? Before you lost your memory you couldn't get enough of them. The portal technology is one of Aperture's two crown achievements."

"What's the other one?" Chell inquired full of curiosity.

"Me of course," GLaDOS answered and laughed merrily.

"But I thought you were in charge."

"Oh, not always. But we can talk more about that tomorrow if a good night's sleep doesn't help you regain your memory. Anyway, let me show you how to use the stationary portal network we've set up here in Aperture."

Chell moved a little closer to GLaDOS and listened as the AI started telling her about portals.

"Every device has a dial like this and you can open the portal simply by pressing it. You can cycle through possible destinations by rotating the switch. Each portal has a color associated with it and certain colors form pairs. Blue portals for example can only connect to orange portals and vice versa. Same goes with red and green and so forth. There can actually only be one portal of each color active at any given time and these devices are used to select where the linked portal will open. If the light in the middle of the knob is orange, then someone else is already using the portal pair you want to use and you'll need to wait for them to finish. The light will turn green once the device is ready for use."

"Only you and I have authorization to use the orange and blue portals and they've been spread around in places we both frequent, but if you need to go to a destination that's far from either a blue or an orange portal you might have to use one of the other colors which are in common use. Each group of employees is allowed to use portals that are placed strategically in places where their job is likely to take them. During emergencies all employees can use all portals except the blue and orange ones."

"How does the device know who's allowed to use what?" Chell asked.

"Every human working here has an implant in each of their palms which allows them to be identified by our equipment. Androids have something similar inside them as well. If the people working at security had tried to check if you were an employee when you were brought in, it would have saved everyone some trouble."

"But my implants are off and I don't know how to turn them back on. Does that mean I can't use the portals?"

"If that's the case, I'm afraid so. Unless your memory returns within the next few days I'll need to find someone to teach you how to use your implants again."

"Is it hard?"

"It took you a couple of days to grasp the basics when you got your first implants. I doubt it would be much different this time around."

_"A couple of days?"_ Chell thought. _"No wonder I couldn't get it working on my own."_

"Anyway, is there anything you need? If not, I should let you get to bed. You've had a rough few days. I'm going to go through the reports from the mission you were in charge of later tonight. Based on what I've already heard you did very well and saved a lot of lives. I'm proud of you Chell. And don't worry, we'll get your memory back. I shall do everything in my power to make sure of that."

GLaDOS placed her hand on the brunette's shoulder and rubbed it gently.

"Thanks…" Chell said quietly. The android's hand felt very comforting and made the girl feel slightly more at ease, but behind GLaDOS's supportive words Chell thought she could sense genuine worry over her friend's situation. "Um, I know it's kind of late but would it be possible for me to get something to eat? I'm starvin'."

"Oh! But of course! My thoughts were so centered around your memory loss that I totally forgot to consider you might not have eaten anything. I'll tell the kitchen to prepare a meal for you right away. Someone will bring it to you posthaste."

"Thanks so much. There are no words to describe how hungry I am right now," Chell said and almost as if on cue her stomach let out a long, loud growl. The girl couldn't help but feel a bit embarrassed but GLaDOS only laughed at her stomach's impeccable sense of timing.

"I think that sound says it all," the AI said and giggled a little more. "I'll go now. There should be enough time for you to grab a quick shower before the food gets here. There's plenty of clothes in your wardrobe. If you don't like them you've got no one but yourself to blame since you're the one who picked them, haha. I'd make a fat joke but I think those got old years ago."

"But I'm not fat," Chell protested.

"That's the joke."

GLaDOS rotated the dial beside the device to the position she desired without even looking at it and then slammed the knob with her fist opening a portal to another apartment.

"Is that your room?" Chell asked.

"It is," said the AI and smiled. "I'll give you a tour later if you want."

"Can we just come and go in and out of each other's rooms as we please using portals?" Chell wasn't sure if she liked the idea of GLaDOS being able to come into her room without her permission.

"You can 'lock' the portal device in your room by pulling the knob like this." GLaDOS pulled the dial towards her and the portal disengaged. "The light on the switch will turn red to indicate this device can no longer be linked to. Of course this is lock is overridden during emergencies for safety reasons. Just push it back to disable the lock."

A scary thought crept into Chell's mind. "What if someone's in the portal when it's turned off?"

"Oh, there are sensors that detect if there's something in the portal. Even if there weren't, as is the case when using a handheld portal device, the portal will simply push out whatever is inside it."

Chell let out a sigh. "So it's safe to use?"

"Perfectly."

GLaDOS opened the portal again and stepped through it. "I will see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay."

"Don't lock the portal tomorrow because I haven't given you a new phone yet to replace the one you've apparently lost so I can't call you."

"Fine, I won't."

"Good, see you tomorrow then. Sleep well."

GLaDOS pushed the button on her side and the portal turned off again, leaving Chell finally alone in the one-room apartment which apparently was supposed to be hers. For a moment the girl just stood where she was, letting her eyes wander around the almost needlessly large room. The room appeared to have an adjacent bathroom at the back but the main living area itself had surprisingly little furniture compared to its size.

There was a huge double bed in the middle of the room, two armchairs and a table in one corner, a desk between the bed and the bathroom with a computer sitting on it, and a decent-sized wardrobe on the wall opposite the bed. The walls didn't have anything on them but because the furniture had been arranged with thought the apartment didn't look empty despite the large amount of unused space. The lights were slightly dimmer than in the rest of Aperture and warmer in tone giving the room a homely and comforting feeling. After inspecting the light switches by the door, Chell noticed that the lights could actually be turned brighter but whoever had adjusted them last had chosen a level that appealed the most to her.

_"Do I really live here?"_ the young woman wondered as she strolled over to the wardrobe with two slide doors and a couple of drawers underneath. She opened the left side to find a variety of simple yet comfortable looking casual clothes that seemed to all be her size. The right half of the wardrobe was full of more practical clothes likely intended for work and such. After quickly going through all the clothes Chell noted a complete lack of any dresses or skirts which she found kind of peculiar.

Placing her long fall boots next to a spare pair in the closet, the girl took out a change of clothes and went into the bathroom which similar to the bedroom was quite large and had both a bathtub and a separate shower. Deciding that she fancied a bath, Chell let the tub fill with warm but not too hot water taking her still healing burns into consideration and entered the bath allowing her muscles and mind to relax. While she was still bathing, the girl could hear someone knocking on the front door and a young man's voice telling her he was here to deliver Chell her meal. After yelling that she couldn't come to the door and asking if he could leave the food by the door, the man politely agreed and left.

Impressed by how fast the food had been delivered, the brunette emptied the bath and took a quick shower. Pulling on a white cotton bathrobe, she opened the door to the hallway to find a large metal tray waiting for her beside the door. She brought it in and set it down on the bed, sitting cross-legged next to it. Chell had expected something akin to reheated leftovers from dinner, but when she lifted up the big metal cover she was astonished to find a hot, more or less restaurant-quality meal waiting for her.

Her supper consisted of mashed potatoes and pork chops in pepper sauce complete with fresh vegetables, whole-grain bread and a large glass of cold milk. Even a much more modest meal would've been enough to make the desperately hungry brunette's mouth water so she immediately dug in without wasting a second longer. The food was as good as it looked and in hardly any time at all the plate was empty and Chell felt full and content. She left the tray where she'd found it assuming that was what she was supposed to do and got into bed. Her body was ready for rest but the day's events kept swirling in the girl's mind, keeping her awake for nearly half an hour, but finally exhaustion won and Chell slipped quietly into the realm of dreams, her last thought being a wish to remember her life again once she'd wake up in the morning. Unfortunately that wish was not granted.

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**A/N: Wow, there are a million things about this chapter that I could talk about but I'm going to try to refrain from writing a wall of text and just say that even though I actually wrote some of this during a period when I was feeling kind of mentally exhausted after trying to get a lot university stuff finished before Christmas, writing the beginning of the scene where Chell meets GLaDOS was some of the most fun I've had so far during my still relatively short fanfic writing career. Writing it just felt incredibly satisfying. When I look at that part of the text I can see I was enjoying myself, and that scene alone made this chapter well worth all the effort I put into it. GLaDOS is simply so much fun to write I wonder if it's even possible for me to ever stop being entertained by her.**

**I originally tried to push this chapter's release for a week earlier, but that didn't quite end up happening. Now I'm actually glad that's the case because I have a sort of an announcement to make. As part of my degree, I need a few credits' worth of job experience but I've been having difficulties finding a company that would take me in. Finally a couple of days ago I did find a job and I'll be starting in just over a week from now. I haven't actually discussed how long I'll be working there, but I expect somewhere between two to four months. Since I'll be also trying to complete at least a couple of my university courses at the same time, I'm not sure how much time I will have to write fan fiction. More importantly I'm not sure how demanding the work will be and therefore how much energy I will have for writing. I find that if I try to write when I'm too tired, the results aren't typically very good. Therefore I tend to avoid writing unless I'm feeling energetic and I'm also in the right mood.**

**What this all means is that for a few months my fics are likely going to be updated at a slightly slower pace, but since I typically write reasonably long chapters and don't work all that fast anyway the change might not even be all that noticeable. What I will NOT allow this to affect is the quality of my writing and hopefully even if I find less time to write I'll be able to use some of my spare time to plan out the chapters I'll be working on next. Hopefully during the summer I'll have much more time at my disposal and it's very possible I might go on a writing spree. Watch out if I do!****  
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**To ensure that there is no confusion, my next chapter is going to be for Competitive Testing Initiative and I'm going to keep alternating the updates between the two stories from now on. I'm really excited about the next chapter for this story because it's kind of an important one for setting up many of the things for not just this first story, but the series overall.**

**As always, thanks for reading. I hope to see you in the next chapter!**


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